Michelle Malkin Is Wrong

What’s she talking about? The provision in the ObamaCare bill that will require all businesses to file 1099 forms for every company with whom they spend $600 or more each year.

This provision is so onerous that the paperwork alone could shut down the entire independent trucking industry, not to mention inflict massive pain on small businesses in every town, village and hamlet across the land.

This is precisely why the Republicans should not repeal this provision individually. It is exactly why Boehner and McConnell should resist all efforts to cut off this tiny hangnail on the pinkie finger of the hulking monster that is ObamaCare.

As I wrote in an open letter to Senator McConnell on this issue previously:

Please, please, please do not try to “fix” ObamaCare. Don’t try to make it less painful, or less egregious. That’s exactly what the opposition wants you to do. (Listen, you can hear them chuckling in the next room as they listen to your pronouncements of reasonableness.) You are falling into their trap.

Tell them it’s all or nothing. Repeal or be proud of what they have done to us. They forced that huge pile of stinking, rotting refuse on us. Let them live with the results—the painful, oppressive, outrageous results that haven’t even started to kick in yet.

See, if you don’t do anything to fix it, if you leave it huge and hulking and crushing, just think of the outcry that will rise up around the land when it’s time to file our 1099 forms. Democrats will hear from their constituents, “How could you?” When more companies start removing health insurance from their benefit plans, the calls will flood the Democrats again. Squeak, squeak, squeak will turn into raging roars to get rid of the bill.

But if you agree to fiddle with the bill, fix 10 or 15 of the 2,300 pages in the bill, you lose all the squeaky wheels clamoring for repeal. The drive loses its force, becomes less urgent, less dire. Other things will become more important. And that’s just what the Democrats are hoping for.

Already the number of people that are irate over the law is declining, with a new AP poll out showing that those strongly opposing the law has fallen to 30%. Even within the Republican base, the poll results (however fickle they may be) show the marathon run to repeal is exhausting many citizens:

As for repeal, only about one in four say they want to do away with the law completely. Among Republicans support for repeal has dropped sharply, from 61 percent after the elections to 49 percent now.

If Congress fixes even one tiny portion of the bill, they peel off a percent or two more from those declaring themselves “strongly opposed” in the polls. The media will take those lowered numbers and run with them held high like a battle banner. They will proclaim all efforts to repeal anything substantial to be dead, unwanted, unnecessary.

Our huddled masses just can’t sustain a vigilant passion for long—for anything. The election eased some of the pent-up steam. Now many people just want to get back to their lives and hope Congress does the right thing.

That right thing is complete repeal of ObamaCare, not fixing it up piecemeal.

I’m sorry to have to call Michelle Malkin out on this one. I usually agree with her quite readily. But on this issue of “fixing” ObamaCare to eliminate the 1099 provision, she’s wrong.

If the Republicans (and Blue Dog Democrats) in Congress misplay their hand, we will be saddled for generations with the full weight of ObamaCare, until it completely destroys our health care system. Then the future media can run stories about how all the wealthy people and their politician friends go to someplace like Burundi to partake of their renowned, vastly superior medical services.